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The Power of Thinking You’re Not Special
And the cognitive distortion of culturally enforced egomania.
If you’re anything like me, you probably grew up around thoughtless messages that you were special, could do anything you put your mind to, and that just because you existed, other people would give a damn about whether you succeeded or failed.
If it wasn’t your parents or your teachers constantly telling you how special you were, it was television shows, movies, and other pop culture references that literally fed off your desire to feel like you stood out in the crowd.
But this cultural “I’m special” syndrome has much more to it than just leading us to come off as a bit self-absorbed. We don’t all believe that we’re special because of movie stars, fashion magazines, or our obsession with social media. We believe we’re special, and so we’re obsessed with these things. These aspects of culture are symptoms of culturally enforced egomania.
The real reason that people believe that they are “special” is that it gives them justification for their actions. We’re all fighting the painful reality that we might not be special at all, and anxiety crafts a message opposite to this as compensation to combat nihilism.
